Amidst the Bitter Snow
by ninitheblacksheep
Summary: "Meredy doesn't want Keele to feel like that ever again!" she dribbled "Meredy does not like Reid more than Keele, no one is always disappointed in Keele, we all love Keele, Meredy loves Keele!" KeeleXMeredy one-shot.


They were alone. Mostly. They, of course, had the four elemental spirits, dormant in their cages, slung around each of their waists. And they were obviously accompanied by the clouds of white mist that drifted out of their mouths whenever they heaved a breath. Of course they were in the presence of the miniature critters that buried themselves in the frosty banks of snow, out of human sight. They clearly had the perishing fire, trying it's very hardest to muster what one would actually call a flame. They were surrounded by the solid, frozen walls of the misshapen igloo-like shelter they had found, so in turn, they were obviously in the company of millions of miniscule ice craymels. And, they, undoubtedly, were in the presence of that small, blue puffy creature that had curled itself up in a spare cloak and was drifting in the land of sleep. Thinking about it, they were, if you were to put it a certain way, standing in a full crowd, which probably would've been slightly more exciting.

However, if you were to put it the right way, they were alone.

He sat opposite to her, quaking due to the deathly cold around them. His narrow face, usually fairly pale in colour, looked as if it had been drained of his liquid life, and was now more of a ghostly ivory hue. This, of course, excused the very tip-top of his nose and the rims of his eyes, which shone a bright strawberry. He sat, limbs drawn in, bitten fingernails digging into juddering knees as he tried to calm his frantic chattering of teeth, but no luck as of yet.

She sat opposite to him, a gentle crescent smile gracing her lips, her hands hovering above the glowing clumps of ash, or in other words, the remnants of a poorly crafted camp fire. Unlike him, her lithe form did not vibrate with the bitter chill, but her slender figure had somewhat folded in on itself to envelope whatever ounce of heat she had. Her dark skin, which was usually pearly smooth to the touch, was chapped and rough due to the harsh winds and occasional hail that the group had hiked through.

She looked across the 'room' into his deep cerulean eyes, which were weighted slightly by sand-bags of purple.

He looked across into those pools of rich magenta, which were shaded partially by heavy eyelids.

True, the both of them were heavy with fatigue. The fierce cold didn't help, but what would one expect when braving the murderous Celsius Mountain?

"Keele is cold?" she inquired calmly, incorrect grammar and foreign tongue giving away her obvious Celestian heritage.

He narrowed his eyes and attempted to silence his violent chattering of teeth, just for as long as he intended to speak "What do you think?" he grunted, his voice laced with intense scepticism, which was just always there.

"Meredy thinks that Keele is-"

"'I think that you are' not 'Meredy thinks that Keele is' can you hear yourself when you speak?" He snapped, head jerking away from her questioning gaze to stare at the silky smooth walls of ice.

"...I-I think ... that y-you? That you are?" she recited, rolling every word off the tip of her tongue carefully, as if they were made of fragile glass.

"That's better,"

There was a silence while Meredy quickly placed her hands back over fireplace and applied pressure to the air. For half a second, a flicker of burnt orange shone in her palms, and another half second later the fire flared up just a little bit. She had the greater fire Craymel after all, which was tucked safely away in her cage.

"...So is you cold?" Meredy whispered, realizing only after she'd finished the sentence, that her grammar was all wrong, and readying herself for a loud, stabbing correction from her scholar friend.

Keele's head, which was previously stonily facing the solid snow barriers of the igloo, now edged around a tad so that his eyes almost met Meredy's "I...a- a little," he shuddered, pallid hands clenching the thick material of his sleeves, trying to silence his bone shattering shivers "I think perhaps I made an incorrect assumption...w-when I thought this cloak to be the best t-thermal insulator..."

Meredy shook her head, the violet ribbons of hair bouncing with the movement "No...Keele made a correct assumption..." she fingered the sugar-pink lace bow adorning the chestal area of her warm cloak "It is just that Keele is not used to cold this bad. Keele remembers when we went to Chambard in Inferia and Meredy was very very hot? Because Celestia is a colder world, Keele has never felt this cold before. Meredy does not shiver because it gets cold like this every winter."

"Ah..." Keele huffed, casting his eyes downward and pulling his knees up to his chest "I-I knew that!"

Meredy giggled before sending another lick of Efreet's flame to the fire, even though there really wasn't much point since it was long dead.

"W-when are they getting back anyway?" Keele whined loudly, his voice echoing off the frigid walls "This isn't fair, just leaving u-us here!"

Their two comrades, Reid and Farah, had been gone for about half an hour now, hunting the desolate white dreamscape of snow for food. It was no mystery why they were talking so long; the only creature that the quartet of travellers could eat on this mountain were the feeble snow lobsters that really weren't even worth the wait.

While the stubborn scholar complained, he knew that he would rather be sitting in these freezing conditions than wading his way through them. By the time the four travellers had reached the small campsite, they were less than half way to the summit, and Keele was already close to total collapse. He cursed his stupid, weak body silently. Keele occasionally wondered what it would feel like to be blessed with the strength and body of Reid, and so far he had only ever come to one conclusion; life like that would simply be **easier.**

"Meredy doesn't know...they are very late...perhaps Reid and Farah are in trouble..." Meredy's slender hand drifted to her chin, where the long fingers ghosted over the flesh of her bottom lip in worry.

Keele scoffed "Pssh, don't be a fool, they're never in trouble, because Reid and Farah are just so strong and heroic!"

"Meredy did not know that Keele thought that way!" Meredy's face brightened and she clasped her hands together in jubilation, oblivious to the fact that Keele was being sarcastic.

"Oh shut u-up Meredy!" he grimaced.

"What? Isn't that what Keele said?" the young girl questioned, suddenly afraid that she'd done something to offend the scholar, and racking her brains for what it possibly could be.

Meredy stared at the teen through large, innocent pupils. It was a little strange to her, but out of her fellow comrades, the hardest to get her head around was Keele. He was simply so far opposite to her in terms of the way each of them thought, and their inner psyches. Meredy just could not get a firm grasp on the way the Keele saw the world. She didn't comprehend his strange idea that everything was either 'black or white,' and she didn't understand his life that was solely based on logic alone. Sometimes she wondered whether she'd be able to live a life like that. To her it sounded like an existence of wasting away in solitude. Who would you have to converse with if you couldn't picture the varying shades of grey? That was why she couldn't understand it.

There was a stabbing silence in which Meredy was too tense to even throw another spark to the fire. Keele was clearly in 'that mood,' where as much as twitching a finger could set him off. Of course, Meredy didn't blame him; it was painfully cold, they were both very hungry, and they had just hiked about half way up the tallest mountain in the world of Celestia. He was entitled to be slightly touchy.

"Hey!" she tried breaking through the ice "Meredy just remembered something!"

"What is it...?" Keele harrumphed, not bothering to look for himself.

"Here! Meredy bought this in Peruti shop!"

This caught Keele's attention.

In the girl's cocoa-shaded fists was the neck of what looked to Keele like some sort of instrument. A fairly small, wooden object that clearly belonged to the string family, or in other words, it had the basic layout of a stringed instrument; a head, which the instrument's strings extended from, a long neck, where the strings created paths of fragile animal hair that lead to the body, where one was to either use fingers to pluck or a bow to sweep in order to create sound. In short it resembled some strange variation of an Inferian violin, but there was no doubting the ornate Celestian design adorning the chipped wood. Not to mention that it looked considerably more complicated than a violin.

Keele's ears pricked up and he leaned in closer, resembling a dog that had been kindly offered a juicy bone "How interesting...is this a standard Celestian instrument?"

"Yes!" Meredy grinned "It is called a Vitae!"

"...Hmm...you know it rather resembles an instrument we have on Inferia," he pondered, habitually chewing at his finger as he generally did when thinking about something.

"Oh?"

"Yes, an instrument called a Violin,"

"Really! Do you play the, uh, the 'Vaioleen?'" Meredy wrinkled her nose at the way the pronunciation sounded a little iffy.

Keele crossed his arms over his chest "Don't be absurd! As if I would waste my time with anything like that!"

"...Why wouldn't Keele?"

"B-because what do musicians contribute to society? Apart from being able to pluck a string, what do violinists actually accomplish? Also, I cannot stand the way people get so goddamn emotional over a piece of music, it's ridiculous!"

Meredy could not believe what she was hearing "But Keele..."

"Don't get all preachy on me, please. It's my opinion and I ask that you respect it."

Well...at least he'd learned to acknowledge that his opinion wasn't necessarily fact. Maybe. Maybe he was just trying to avoid a lecture from Meredy on how opinions were all different.

Meredy cast her eyes downward to the instrument resting in her gloved hands, a frown playing on her lips. She felt slightly downcast...but who was she to hope that Keele would actually be interested in music? If Keele valued logic more than anything, why would he waste his time with unnecessary emotions that would just slow him down? In Keele's world of depressing block colours, where would there be room for gradients?

"So what, can you play that thing?"

"Huh?" Meredy leapt from her thought processes, looking across the room at the scholar, who had his chin in shaking hands.

"That Vitae. Can you play it?" he sounded apathetic, as if he was trying to feign interest but it wasn't proving successful. This certainly wouldn't stop Meredy from letting an ecstatic grin tug at her cold cheeks.

"You bet!"

Keele sat up, narrowing his eyes sceptically. What? Was there anything this girl couldn't do?

"...Really?" he tested, not quite believing that such a simple girl could navigate her way around that thing.

"You bet!"

"I don't believe you," he sniffed, pulling his velvety shell of cloaks and robes closer as a biting wind picked up. The snow was getting heavier...

"What? Why? Why would Meredy lie!" Meredy protested loudly, edging closer to the other teen.

"Because you can't even make grammatical sense when you speak, let alone get your fingers around something like that!"

"You bet Mered-"

"And another thing," Keele spat "There are alternative affirmative phrases that you can exhaust besides 'you bet'. If you're not going to speak properly, then don't speak at all, if you please,"

There was a pause.

Meredy fell backwards onto her bottom, crossing her arms over her chest, an irate pout stamping her chapped lips. There was a stinging silence as the pair sat in quiet, each one cursing the other under their breath; Meredy cursed the fact that Keele shot her down and then didn't even give her a chance to pick herself up again. Keele cursed the fact that it just wasn't fair. He didn't know why it wasn't fair, he just knew that it wasn't. His cheeks burned with embarrassment as he looked at the lithe form opposite him. Why did she have to be so perfect in every single way? It'd be so much easier to hate her if that wasn't the case.

"...Meredy can play it," Meredy muttered quietly.

"Fine, fine, if you can play it, play it! I don't care!" Keele shouted, gesturing wildly at the instrument, almost insisting that she play it.

There was a second of silence, after which Meredy calmly smiled and relaxed her muscles, letting that grotesque pout flee from her lips "Yay, Keele is nice again,"

"Oh shut up," he grimaced. By now he had realised that he allowed her to win, but he was too cold, tired and hungry to care even a little bit. Besides, it was so much easier to just not put up a fight, especially knowing that you will inevitably lose.

Meredy picked up the Vitae once more and nestled it in her hands, as if she was trying to remember how to hold it.

"You can play it, right?"

"Yes! Meredy can, just not for a long time!"

Keele groaned "Don't insist on playing music to me if you're not even sure if you can-"

"Be quiet Keele!" Meredy argued.

Keele's eyes widened with fury. His jaw clenched. His face felt as if it was being injected with molten lava. How this little girl was managing to make him look the fool was beyond him. Why he was so absolutely enraged was another thing that was a question to him. All he knew at the time was that he wanted to slam his fist against the wall and yell at the top of his voice. Humiliation flared up in his cheeks and he took a deep breath...

'Calm, Keele, it's only a silly girl, no need to get angry about it. Save your energy for more pressing times, no need to get in a state over Meredy. Why do you get so emotional around her anyway, it's only a girl? _Only a girl...only a girl. _Stop,'

He didn't know why he adopted this awful capricious attitude around Meredy. It seemed that she had the power to anger him until he wanted to weep, but also the power to make him see the world in a different way; a way that was better. Yes, the Celestian femme seemed to be, slowly but surely, forcing Keele to lose his grip on his dimension of black and white. It had taken Keele a while to realise it, and even admit it, but he was falling out of that simple world. All because of her. All this was wreaking havoc with his emotions to say the least. One could use that as an excuse for his erratic behaviour, but it had also taken Meredy to realise that he wasn't a very nice person, no excuses.

"Aha! Meredy's ready!" the girl chirped, he Vitae resting on her lap and her fingers poised in a delicate web around the strings.

Keele coughed into his gloved hand and sniffed "F-fine then, just get it over with!"

"Is Keele alright?" Meredy inquired carefully, not wanting to anger the scholar again.

"Shut up, I'm fine!"

She really had no idea of the destruction and emotional pain she was inflicting, did she? Great...

"So, uhm, what are you going to do?" Keele grunted.

"Celestian lullaby that Meredy's...that uhm..."

Keele raised his head out of curiosity after the girl trailed off into stiff silence "Meredy?"

"Nothing nothing!" Meredy grinned nervously, her shoulder's noticeably tensing "Meredy just had a silly moment!"

Keele wanted to interrogate her on why she trailed off, also on why she sounded so skittish when apologising. But was that really a good idea? Thinking ahead, would it really merit Keele to dive in to Meredy's mind and discover the secret that was most likely of little significance? No.

"So a Celestian lullaby you say? Let's hear it, it may be interesting to identify how it differs from that of Inferia,"

"You bet! Uhm, let's see..."

Meredy repositioned her hands and plucked a string with her ring finger, taking a test drive. It became apparent that, although it resembled a violin in the way that it was crafted, it sounded very different, the shrill 'twing,' of the note sounding more like a koto from Inferia.

"How interesting..." Keele pondered aloud "It seems that although the koto and the Vitae are differing in shape and dimensions, the sound that emits is still the same..." Keele looked up at Meredy "How is that? Is it Celestian technology?"

Meredy shook her head "No...this is just a wooden instrument, no technology,"

"Then how is..." Keele would, of course, never admit to anyone that he was confused (especially over a subject as trivial as this) but he was. The cogs in his mind had frozen. Oh well, he'd work it out later, perhaps when his mental state wasn't so fragile and worn. It wasn't like he was all that well versed in the subject anyway.

"Okay, Meredy ready!"

"You are?"

"Yep!"

"Let's hear it then, get it over with," Keele sighed, staring at the intricate stitching in his turquoise gloves before heaving his head up to face her.

Meredy straightened her back and readied her fingers. Keele watched in anticipation as she stuck like that for around three seconds, not moving a muscle. Keele could make out from her contorting facial expression that she was contemplating something. Finally, she looked up, and he 'hmphed'.

"What is it now?" he whined.

"Uhm, does Keele want Meredy to sing?"

The silence of the igloo filled with choking that bounced off the walls. Keele's blue cheeks flushed a brilliant scarlet, and he almost lost his balance "W-what? What do you, what do...sing? Why?"

"This lullaby has singing in it...do you want Meredy to?"

Keele coughed and spluttered into his sleeve, trying to search his mind for the right answer but not seeming to be able to find one. Why was it that his mind always had to fail in social situations?

"I...uhm..."

"It doesn't really work without singing...Meredy's not a very good singer, but she will try!" Meredy piped up, smiling sweetly at the dazed scholar.

"Oh uhm..."

Keele had no time to think or act before he felt a familiar presence getting nearer and nearer, and then right over him, as Meredy had leant across the heap of wafery ashes, reaching a hand out to Keele's head. Paralysed, he sucked in a breath and held it, then unknowingly began to fist the material of his robes. He could smell orange blossoms and Celstian spice as the femme was now brushing her lithe form against his. Then, felt a tickle at his earlobe, and darted his eyes to find that Meredy was slowly sliding the mystical Orz earring from his ear. His shock was replaced with confusion as the girl drew away from him, returning to her side of the igloo.

As soon as she hit the floor, her hand drifted up to her ear and removed the matching Orz crystal. Gathering the two together in one fluffed hand, she carefully positioned them to the side, away from reach.

Keele, once having caught his breath, opened his mouth to speak before realising that there was no point; she wouldn't be able to make head nor tail of what he was saying, and vice versa. However, the scholar really only needed to study the expression on Meredy's face to know one thing; she knew what she was doing. Of course there was a reason behind removing the Orz.

It didn't take a second for Meredy to finally pick up the ornate instrument and begin to play.

As soon as her slender fingers struck the first note, a binding spell seemed to be cast over the room of ice. Suddenly aware that Meredy had begun her recital, Keele stared into the ashes of the fire, zipping his mouth closed, and eyeing the one firefly of flame that was still dancing amongst the heap. He didn't want to look at her, for he feared that it might trigger a reaction. The air was engulfed in slow-skipping 'tweaks' and 'twangs', so perfectly arranged together that Keele was certain that every sound could not have been placed anywhere else in the melody. It only took him a short amount of time to realise...it was perfection, as, for once in his life, he found that he didn't need to think. Not about anything. Almost subconsciously, the scholar allowed his mind to sink and his soul to fly away from his body, for he didn't want to be taken over by the horrible sceptic inside him at a time like this. He felt as if he was drifting between dimensions under the light of a foreign moon, as Meredy's song seemed to haunt every region of his consciousness. He almost missed the moment she began to sing to the tune, of course, in Celestian. In the back of Keele's drugged mind, he acknowledged that, yes, Meredy was correct, she wasn't that good at singing. But that didn't matter. In fact, he found, to his surprise, that the fact that Meredy was no professional singer made him yearn for her even more. She was like his forbidden fruit. All this time, all he could stare at was the spec of orange flame that was somehow still burning. It was as if he was drowning, but there was no pain. He was in a utopia of sound.

His thoughts, his world, it was a blur, as if the traditional lullaby that Meredy was playing for him was a tranquiliser or sedative or something. Around him, the ice craymels appeared to hum quietly to their little selves, as if they knew the score. Keele felt warm, despite the fatally cold conditions. He didn't think that he'd felt this warm in a long time. Of course not physically, but emotionally.

And so, with the last flicker of fire burning out into the snowy ground, the Celestian girl finished her recital. The spell that had been cast over the igloo dissolved away into the blizzard outside, and Meredy carefully placed the instrument down.

Meredy began speaking "_aeruditu de bwee asyndetintyo, Keelu?"_

Keele looked up at the girl, feeling his heart pulsate in his throat. Everything seemed...strange and new. His stomach whirred and he could hear his own juddering breaths. He felt dizzy with exhaustion. Perhaps that lullaby really was literally a sleeping aid of sorts. He wouldn't be surprised. As he struggled to wake from his hypnotic state, the unaffected girl across from him opened her mouth again.

"_Keelu? Dindyee alm mugoo desinduey? Keelu?" _Meredy frowned, sudden worry striking her features.

"I, uhm..." Keele choked, but by now Meredy had already handed back Keele's jem of emerald Orz crystal, and with a few false starts, Keele managed to slide it on to his ear lobe. For a second, an odd throbbing vibrated through his head, and he reflexively lifted a hand to his temple and pinched his forehead. Unmistakeable; the beginnings of a headache. It must've been the magic of the crystal that was beaming through his skull. Surely Meredy's strange, surreal melody didn't have that severe of an effect on his mental state?

"_Keelu? Keelu? Dindyee alm mug_ou okay? Keele?"

Slowly, Meredy's Inferian voice overlapped into her Celestian speech. Thank goodness they were on the same psychic wave. The scholar couldn't help but ponder whether the surprisingly fast time for Keele and Meredy to be able to communicate clearly to one another was due to Meredy's song. It was scientifically proven that two people listening to the same piece of music were likely to psychologically link somehow.

"Keele? Are you okay?" her voice smashed through the juddered whirring of cogs in Keele's mind.

"Meredy...I..."

"Did you like Meredy's song?"

"I...uhm... well..." Keele didn't know what to say. He couldn't admit that the song had made him feel the way that he did after his extensive rants before it started. That would just embarrass him and give Meredy a reason to gloat.

Meredy grinned and winked "You know why Meredy took our earrings out? Because lullaby is Celestian and it would sound horrible if Meredy sung in with earrings because earrings translate and the words would not fit! Clever Meredy, right Keele?"

Of course Keele hadn't figured this out yet, but swallowed back his 'typical-scientist-sign-of-realisation,' as Reid called it, so basically a loud noise and a slap to the head whenever Keele, or apparently every other 'clever person,' realised something that they were not intellectually aware of. Do not give her the satisfaction.

"And Keele felt really weird right? Celestian lullabies work very well, gets children to sleep all the time!"

Keele ignored this and finally found his footing.

"Meredy..." Keele said suddenly, almost surprised at hearing his voice "How do you know that song? How do you know how to play the Vitae that well?"

He realised that he might be entering dangerous waters here; Meredy's past remained a question mark to everyone, and Meredy's avoiding to talk about it whenever it arose in conversation was always a hint of it maybe not being all that pleasant. However, Keele, like all scientists, possessed a trait that was often useful but occasionally not; the craving to _know _things. He felt he had a right to know, since they were travelling together

Meredy only hesitated for a second, but it was long enough to warn Keele that he'd perhaps crossed some sort of line "Uhm...did you like it?"

Meredy smiled nervously, shutting her eyes, maybe out of fear of what Keele might do next. She felt as if there were birds flapping about in her stomach, as bizarre as it sounded. Then it dawned on her; it was a huge mistake to pick up that instrument, lie about where it came from, and serenade her comrades with it.

"It was alright..." Keele sniffed nonchalantly, almost completely forgetting the question he'd just asked Meredy that had been so neatly evaded.

Meredy grinned and pressed her slim fingers against each other "Really? Meredy's so happy!"

"Why do you even care?" Keele grunted, trying to hide his nagging desire to find out.

"Because Keele said that he didn't like music and that made me sad," Meredy chirped "Meredy thinks that Keele is sad too often..."

Keele looked up, not because he cared, but because he was curious.

"What do you mean? I'm not sad, just...sceptical,"

"No, Meredy thinks that Keele is sad, but that's okay. Meredy doesn't mind." Meredy's eyes shut as a grin sprung to her lips "Anyway, music always makes people happier!"

Keele could only stare, transfixed, entranced, bedazzled.

"You don't need to worry about me..." he remarked quietly. It lacked its usual blunt edge.

"Meredy thinks that Keele is already happier..." looking over at Meredy, Keele could see the deep thought reflected in those galaxies of magenta. Why...why was she concerned with him...after the way that he'd treated her...after he'd been so prejudice and ignorant towards her world? If he was in her position, would he have welcomed her into his life as she did him? Keele wanted to say yes, but really didn't see the point as he knew that the answer was a definite no.

"Travelling with Reid and Farah and Meredy has made Keele much much happier, I think, than when we first found Keele..." she whispered, her voice heavy with kindness and compassion. The grammatical errors that littered the sentence just didn't matter at this point, and Keele couldn't believe he was saying this, but he couldn't care less. He just didn't care, for once in his life. How could a creature born into this time be so perfect when everything else was so terrible cruel? How could one girl make him fall into a trance with a snap of the fingers? He didn't understand! The strangest part was that...the fact that he didn't understand didn't anger him at all.

"Meredy...," Keele swallowed, before promptly erupting into a fit of coughs. He threw his fist up to his lips and did the best he could to block the unattractive snorts and grunts that were shaking his body.

"Keele!" Meredy almost shrieked before pushing herself to her feet and stumbling over to the older teen, falling to her knees at his side and offering her arm around his neck. Keele's cheeks burned in embarrassment and he made sure to hang his head so low that Meredy could never see his face. He didn't want her to see him looking so pathetic. His body lurched forward with a particularly violent heave, Meredy shrieked again "Keele! Are you okay, Keele?"

Thankfully, after that especially violent one, Keele felt his throat begin to open up to the air and the jabbing pains subside. He wrapped his spindly fingers around his throat and gently massaged it, pushing loud, shaking breaths from his lips. Why did he feel like crying right now?

Meredy gently placed both her hands on the scholar's sharp shoulders, and the teen stiffened "Has it stopped?" she asked simply, her voice no more than a slight whisper.

With great difficulty, Keele managed to sway his head up and down and recover his posture, hanging his head in shame.

"Keele? Are you okay?" Meredy questioned carefully. Keele nodded once more, but juddered to a halt completely when a small gloved hand reached for his face and swept the curtain of indigo hair from in front of his eyes. Keele held his breath, clenched his fists, and found himself shutting his eyes, squeezing them shut so that he wouldn't have to look into those entrancing pink nebulas.

Time had stopped. Everything was silent.

"Keele feels cold..." Meredy whispered softly, graciously.

"I...I-I am," Keele choked through a cracked throat.

"Open your eyes,"

Keele swallowed and his lids flickered, a few flakes of snow that hadn't been kind enough to melt yet chilling his sensitive eyeballs. With a paralysed breath, the young scholar allowed his dark eyes to open and breath the light around him. What met him was the deep cocoa of her skin, the soft threads of violet lilac hair cascading over her shoulders, and the fields of glittering magenta as her irises met his.

"Yes..." Meredy breathed, the soft gust of breath warm on Keele's cheeks "Keele is much happier..."

"Meredy...I was...uhm..."

Suddenly, it seemed that, within a blink of an eye, time started flowing again. Without any warning, Meredy fell back onto her bottom, away from the scholar, snapping the chain that had seemed to bind them together only a few seconds ago. Keele looked away in embarrassment, feeling his cheeks grow hot once more. Now he just felt ridiculous for over-dramatising those few seconds.

"What?" came Meredy's voice, bubbly once more "What does Keele want to ask Meredy?"

Keele lifted his fist to his lips to cough one last time before swallowing and asking his question "I want to know...tell me how you know the Vitae so well..."

Meredy cocked her head sideways before slapping a hand to her cheek when she glanced at the fire "Oh goodness, Meredy needs to sort out that fire it is too cold-"

"Meredy, can you not avoid the question? Please?" Keele's arms were now folded across his knees, which were drawn up to his chest. His face was buried in his sleeves, and his voice came out muffled and strained. However, it was Keele's eyes that told Meredy he was serious, much to her despair.

"Keele...I don't understa-"

"Why don't you trust me?"

Now Meredy certainly wasn't expecting this. She sucked in a breath as a sickly knife plunged into her chest, or that's what it felt like anyway. A feeling of sinking overcame her. Meredy's hands flew to her slim chest with a swift movement and forged confusion, her long fingers twitching in their gloves.

"What do you mean? Meredy trusts Keele-"

"No you don't!"

Meredy staggered backwards in hurt, widening her eyes and trying her very hardest not to look into Keele's eyes of liquid sapphire that were swimming in grim acceptance.

Keele continued, disappointment quavering his voice "You never talk to me about anything. I don't know anything about you, and you know so much about me. I know I'm being selfish and I don't care whether I deserve it or not, I just find it unfair how you talk to Farah and Reid about this stuff and not me,"

The fizz of the ice craymels in the room was the only sound left in the world. The cold in the igloo suddenly became unbearably noticeable, stagnant in the closed circle of atmosphere around them.

Meredy felt her heart twang with guilt and wound-like distress, and it webbed through her whole body. The air suddenly felt heavy, a burden. Looking over at the cynical student strained her eyes.

"Keele...Meredy doesn't talk to anybody about nothing...not even Farah, really!"

"Don't lie," Keele spat in silence "I heard you and her talking in Luishka that night about your parents when I went searching for some spare sheets in your room,"

"Keele heard that...? That wasn't Meredy's fault, it was Farah! Meredy does trust Keele!"

Keele sniffed into the damp fabric of his cloak, not looking up at the Celestian girl.

"Meredy just...Meredy doesn't like talking about it really. Doesn't Keele have things that he doesn't want to talk about?"

Keele didn't even have to think before he raised his head. Yes. Of course there were things that he didn't like talking about. So many things concerning every person he'd ever know one way or the other. There were so many silly little traumas that had plagued the back of Keele's mind since childhood that he really didn't want to discuss. Ever.

"Yes there are things...but I wouldn't tell anyone stuff like that. You seem to trust Farah over me!"

"Noooo!"

"It's fine, it's not like I don't understand why..." Keele grunted, sniffling again, his nose having had blushed a charming sanguine from the bitter frost.

The igloo dissolved into grave maudlin.

Meredy felt defeat sink heavily within, much like how a boulder would sink to the sea bed. It occurred to her that she wouldn't be able to look Keele in the eye again before she told him at least a smidgen of truth. But did Meredy really mind? She forced her mind to probe the matter for a few seconds, carefully weighing out her options one by one. It's not like she didn't trust Keele per se, it was just that he honestly didn't exactly give off an aura of understanding. Then again, Keele was her friend, and friends do trust each other, don't they? Did Meredy trust Keele?

Did she?

The closed circle filled with nothingness, silence, just thick, freezing air that pushed Keele to draw his limbs in closer, ensnaring whatever drop of warmth that he had left. He didn't look at the girl across from him, and she didn't look back.

"I...uh..." Meredy started. Keele looked up "You know Meredy didn't r-really buy Vitae in Peruti shop..."

Meredy felt her voice thin and quiver, but she pressed on, trying to swallow the sickness rising "Meredy l-lied..."

"Oh?"

"Yes..._zueetindee_...sorry,"

Keele didn't say anything.

"Vitae is actually from...Meredy found it in Luishka,"

"Luishka?" a flash of brief interest sparked in Keele's eyes.

"Yes. Meredy was surprised...Meredy has not seen this since she was this big," Meredy's hand hovered just above her chest, and her eyes gazed upon the chipping instrument, inanimate in front of her.

Keele narrowed his eyes "Why the hell did you lie?"

Meredy's head sunk and she spoke to the floor, as if ashamed "Vitae belonged to Meredy's mother..."

Keele suddenly became aware that he'd entered those hazardous waters that he wanted to avoid, but this didn't seem to stifle his interest. Not one bit "Your...your mother?"

"When Meredy was very little...her mother taught Meredy how to Vitae play...no, play the Vitae, but Meredy has not seen her mother in a looong time. Vitae helps Meredy remember her...because the song Meredy just played to Keele was Meredy's favourite lullaby as child that mother taught to me,"

Keele didn't speak. He just sat, head resting in his arms, waiting for more.

"When Meredy found Vitae in Luishka, I stuffed it in Meredy's bag for later...maybe Meredy shouldn't have done it..."

"No," choked the scholar. Meredy looked up, surprise sharpening her features "N-No...no, I'm glad that you...that you took it, I, um..."

"Keele..."

A deep breath to steady himself, and Keele was speaking "Your...your song, it was...it was n-nice- well, it was...it was not _nice_, but, like, interesting, I mean..."

Meredy became aware of just how foreign a concept a mere compliment was to Keele. It was so clear that he had never been in the position of comforting somebody else before, or at least not for a long time. Keele's expression tumbled around unpredictably, his lips contorting into broken shapes, trying to say something, anything.

Finally, he sucked in one more deep breath and squeaked,

"I think you're really brave, Meredy,"

Meredy stopped. She had to stop everything to make way for the absolute adoration that enveloped her.

She didn't care that he was failing. She loved him _so much_ for attempting.

Meredy leaned over and quietly pace her palm onto Keele's knee, a soft smile on her lips that looked so warm that it could melt the entire Celcius mountain into a dirty puddle. Keele felt a flush of heat explode in his cheeks, and wished that he could hide his face but couldn't.

"Meredy is so happy that Keele liked it," she spoke tenderly "...Thank you,"

Keele blinked and buried his irises into his lower lids to avoid having to bask in the glowing sweetness that Meredy radiated.

To his relief, Meredy sat back once again, removing her hand from Keele's stiff knee.

"Keele...you trust Meredy don't you? Meredy trusts you...do you trust her?"

Keele didn't even blink, hesitate, even though what he was about to say contradicted everything he'd thought of the girl up until this point "Y-yes, I, um, I do,"

Meredy stared at the floor melancholically, yet still smiling "Keele...Keele also has things that he does not like to talk about, like Meredy does..."

"Yes..."

Meredy looked hesitant to speak "I um...Meredy...can Keele tell Meredy something about Keele's past? Like Meredy did for Keele?"

While Meredy expected the sweet atmosphere to be broken by an infuriated, highly embarrassed protest from the scholar, Keele just shut his eyes silently, only stiffening a little bit, his fists partly clenched. Did Keele really trust her now? Did he really trust her enough to part with his secrets? To be honest, Meredy had never expected anything that one could remotely call a 'friendship' from the stubborn, stuck up scholar. Perhaps this wasn't a friendship, but it was certainly better than nothing.

"I...uh...let's think..." Keele pondered pensively.

"Keele?" Meredy spoke in shock "You're answering me? You're actually going to tell Meredy?"

A trace of – _was that a_ _smile?_ – formed on Keele's lips. It was only for a second, but it may as well have been for a whole minute and a half, considering that the frequency of Keele's grins were really very close to a big fat zero.

"You told me something...it's not fair that I don't. An eye for an eye right?"

Meredy didn't honestly know what 'an eye for an eye' was, but that didn't really matter, did it? Keele's mien indicated that he wouldn't judge Meredy if she announced that she had no idea what the phrase meant, so if it didn't matter to him, it didn't matter to her. Meredy liked this feeling.

"Right!"

"So...what should I tell you about?" Keele mumbled.

"Meredy does not mind!"

He thought for a moment, then looked up at her.

As Keele began to speak, the colourful spectrum of cobalt in his oculus reflected nothing but bitter melancholy.

"I remember when I first arrived in Rasheans, I was about four years old, and me and my parents had just started unpacking our stuff when Reid and his father came to the door to greet us," hate blazed through Keele's voice "My father took one look at Reid and how boyishly charming yet brutish he was, and I just remember seeing his eyes light up, like Reid was the son he'd never had. I was so upset. I hated Reid from that moment,"

Meredy stared at the scholar, who sounded so utterly depressed and defeated that it was making Meredy's heart hurt "Keele..."

"I mean it's okay now, obviously. It's not like I hate Reid anymore, per se," he shrugged, so suddenly and airily that it was as if he hadn't just confessed the stems of his constant jealousy and hateful nature to her. He didn't smile though.

"I'm sorry Keele..."

"Don't be...it was just silly childhood drama, I'm fine now,"

Meredy realised that she had entered dangerous waters, despite the fact that Keele was so surprisingly casual about his confession. However, this didn't stifle her interest. Not one bit.

"Were you mother and father mean?"

"No, they weren't exactly _mean_," he started, placing a hand to his chin in thought "They were very strict and seemed constantly disappointed in me though,"

Meredy wondered whether that 'constantly disappointed' idea was true or whether it was Keele's naturally paranoid nature creating empty fears to fret over.

"Oh..."

It only took a second for Meredy to make a decision on the matter. There was no turning back, she knew that, but emotions overcame her. Without another thought, Meredy found herself edging towards Keele nervously, then, in one short motion, ensnaring him in a suffocating hug, her arms wrapped tightly around his slim body, liked by the pinkies of each hand.

"Gwaagh!" he spluttered, almost falling backwards "What are y-you doing!"

Meredy buried her head in the hollow between Keele's neck and his shoulder, nestling her cold nose into the softness. She felt like crying, but didn't "Meredy doesn't want Keele to feel like that ever again!" she dribbled "Meredy does not like Reid more than Keele, no one is always disappointed in Keele, we all love Keele, Meredy loves Keele!"

"M-Meredy..." he stammered "I-I..." but the words just wouldn't come.

So instead, he simply placed his chilled, calloused left hand on Meredy's smooth back, then placed the right one on top of it, drawing himself closer to her, inhaling her scent, embracing her.

"Thank you,"

He never wanted to let go.

**A/N**

**AHAHAHAHAHA I'M FINISHED YES YES! THANK YOU GOD!**

**That took about 2 months...haha...haha...**

**God...**

**I'm SO glad I'm done with that! **

**I loved writing this because I love this pairing so very much! I think these two are utterly gorgeous together, I hope I did them justice. I'm sorry if any of them seemed a little out of character, I haven't written that much Eternia before. I know that nobody will ever read this but I really wanted to write it, it seemed like such a sweet idea when I formulated it in my head. Sorry that there were so many 'THEY'RE GONNA KISS' moments, but I'm awful at writing kiss scenes so I thought 'let's just keep this a friendship thing' Perhaps if I write a story set later in the game we can have them kiss! Right, to anyone who actually reads this, I have not bothered beta reading it or whatever so if you see any mistakes please tell me and I'll fix them. **

**My next Eternia fic I have planned is a supernatural highschool AU where Keele is a teacher and Meredy is a student and forbidden romance occurs X) In my head I'm up to about chapter 3 or 4, I really like it!**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that and I'll seeya soon :D **


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